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Barnyard
Paramount Pictures

Barnyard reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 42 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
4.0 out of 10
based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 30 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG for some mild peril and rude humor

Starring Kevin James, Sam Elliott, Danny Glover, Courteney Cox, Wanda Sykes, and Andie MacDowell

A hilarious look at what really happens in a barnyard when the farmer's back is turned. (Paramount)


GENRE(S): Animation  |  Comedy  |  Family/Kids  
WRITTEN BY: Steve Oedekerk  
DIRECTED BY: Steve Oedekerk  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: December 12, 2006 
Theatrical: August 4, 2006 
RUNNING TIME: 88 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
It's a better-than-average animated feature.
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70
Variety Joe Leydon
Zippy enough to delight youngsters and clever enough to engage their parents.
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70
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Even an advanced case of critter fatigue shouldn't stop you from rushing out to see this delightfully cheeky animated tale.
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70
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The CGI is excellent, with characters whose depth and solidity suggest Nick Park's clay animations.
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63
USA Today Claudia Puig
It's a sweet and mildly funny movie that will entertain young audiences, but one aspect is utterly mystifying: The two main characters, father and son bovine creatures, have large, distracting udders.
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63
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
All of Barnyard is odd. Oddly funny much of the way, oddly serious when it makes room for the early death of a beloved character or the hushed birth of another, oddly musical with its melange of hip-hop and reggae and hard rock and bluegrass.
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58
Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling
It feels like Barnyard swipes too much of its plot from "The Lion King."
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58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's bright, colorful and udder-ly unmemorable.
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50
The Hollywood Reporter Luke Sader
While youngsters might enjoy the movie, more discerning tweens, teens and adults will not be as easily amused.
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50
Washington Post Jennifer Frey
Will entertain the kids; not so much the grown-ups.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
An often amusing but also an aimless and forgettable animated comedy that is noteworthy mostly for its random musical numbers and surprising amounts of violence.
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42
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
For the most part, it's uninspired, not much to look at and laugh-free.
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40
Film Threat Michael Ferraro
Barnyard isn't a complete waste of time, it's just too familiar.
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40
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Like too many animated films aimed at children, Barnyard embraces stereotypes that generally no longer cut it in adult films, and for good reason.
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38
New York Post Kyle Smith
If you want to punish your kids, send them to bed without dinner. If you want to disturb, frighten and depress them while making sure they fail biology, take them to the animated feature Barnyard.
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38
TV Guide Angel Cohn
Moooove along, there's nothing to see here!
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38
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
A bizarrely off-key animated comedy.
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38
Boston Globe Ty Burr
Speaking as both a parent and a critic, I do believe I'd rather drive rusty railroad spikes through my eyes than have to sit through one more computer generated family film about talking animals. The bad news for Hollywood is that after seeing Barnyard my kids feel the same way.
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38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
The disturbing thing in this preposterous piece of family fluff from writer-director Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, the Oscar-nominated Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius) is the sight of bulls with udders.
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30
Austin Chronicle Brian Clark
It's a fine message, but, in the case of the film itself, a little originality would have gone even further.
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30
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
It's always dispiriting to see children's movies succumb to desperate pandering to the coolness imperative, especially since, given the marketing muscle they tend to have behind them, the bigger trick seems to be in getting people not to see them.
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25
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
It shouldn't be surprising that writer-director Steve Oedekerk, the man responsible for "Kung Pow! Enter The Fist" and the second "Ace Ventura" movie, considers single-celled organisms as he shoots for the lowest common denominator.
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25
Premiere Marie Iida
One of the film's few virtues is Danny Glover as the voice of Miles the mule.
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25
Miami Herald Peter Debruge
Loud, sophomoric and stunningly crude.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 4.0 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Caroline B. gave it a2:
Not appropriate for children. My 1st comment when watching the movie was "hey" why do the male cows have udders - why weren't the 2 main characters bulls?? I didn't like the movie and don't think it's for kids.

Carly D. gave it a10:
This movie was so funny in everyway even the male cows with udders made the movie even more hilarious. I just love how the animals would mock every person in the movie.

DeAnna M. gave it a7:
Funny movie. Better than I thought it would be. Didn't find it offensive for anyone. Good family movie

Jordan G. gave it a7:
I expected it to be funny and witty. Though it did have it's moments this "child" movie was a little hard. It had drinking,gangs,breaking and entering, giving birth, kidnappings,beatings, joy-ridings. It was kinda funny and all in all it's OK

Marie R. gave it a1:
[***SPOILERS***] What were they thinking? Very bizarre themes for a “light” child’s animated movie - joy riding, raves, home invasion, gang violence, an unwed pregnant survivor of a Katrina-like flood?! And man-cows? Just weird. And not very funny, either.

Colleen K. gave it a0:
This movie was terrible--I wish I hadn't seen it and I wish I hadn't taken my four nieces to go see it. Aside from the biological mistakes and crude drawings, I felt like I had to "debrief" the children I went with about the horrifying stereotypes and poor decision making in the film [***SPOILERS***] (the animals steal, drink, joy ride, break and enter, behave violently, and do other things that are not cool--all presented in the film as harmless fun). The presentation of all rural folks as either uneducated/stupid, crazy, or alcoholic was anything but charming. For most parts of the film that were intended to be jokes, the theater filled with kids was silent. And this is sad, but being a knitter, the presentation of knitting was so inaccurate that it was actually irritating to watch.

Karen P. gave it a9:
This was a perfect movie to take our granddaughter to see. It was funny and entertaining. Cute storyline. It was refreshing to sit and be entertained without having to worry if something offensive was going to pop up!

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